http://www.rhci-online.net/radiogram/radiogram.htm

  https://github.com/GyanD/codexffmpeg/releases/tag/2023-03-05-git-912ac82a3c

RSID: <<2024-01-19T00:31Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>



Welcome to program 338 of Shortwave Radiogram.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Arlington, Virginia USA.

Here is the lineup for today's program, in MFSK modes as noted:

  1:42 MFSK32: Program preview (now)
  2:49 MFSK32: "Dirt-powered fuel cell" draws energy from soil
  9:00 MFSK64: Turkey's latest VPN ban blocks independent media
13:47 MFSK64: This week's images
27:54 MFSK32: Closing announcements

Please send reception reports to radiogram@verizon.net

And visit http://swradiogram.net

We're on X/Twitter now: @SWRadiogram


 

From New Atlas:

"Dirt-powered fuel cell" draws near-limitless energy from soil

By Loz Blain
January 16, 2024

A Northwestern University team has demonstrated a remarkable new
way to generate electricity, with a paperback-sized device that
nestles in soil and harvests power created as microbes break down
dirt – for as long as there's carbon in the soil.

Microbial fuel cells, as they're called, have been around for
more than 100 years. They work a little like a battery, with an
anode, cathode and electrolyte – but rather than drawing
electricity from chemical sources, they work with bacteria that
naturally donate electrons to nearby conductors as they chow down
on soil.

The issue thus far has been keeping them supplied with water and
oxygen, while being buried in the dirt. "Although MFCs have
existed as a concept for more than a century, their unreliable
performance and low output power have stymied efforts to make
practical use of them, especially in low-moisture conditions,"
said UNW alumnus and project lead Bill Yen.

So, the team set about creating several new designs targeted at
giving the cells continual access to oxygen and water – and found
success with a design shaped like a cartridge sitting vertically
on a horizontal disc. The disc-shaped carbon felt anode lies
horizontally at the bottom of the device, buried deep in the soil
where it can capture electrons as microbes digest dirt.

The conductive metal cathode, meanwhile, sits vertically on top
of the anode. The bottom part thus sits deep enough to have
access to moisture from the deep soil, while the top sits flush
with the surface. A fresh air gap runs down the whole length of
the electrode, and a protective cap on top stops dirt and debris
from falling in and cutting off the cathode's access to oxygen.
Part of the cathode is also coated with a waterproofing material,
so that when it floods, there's still a hydrophobic section of
the cathode in touch with oxygen to keep the fuel cell running.

In testing, this design performed consistently across different
soil moisture levels, from completely underwater to "somewhat
dry," with just 41% water by volume in the soil. On average, it
generated some 68 times more power than was required to operate
its onboard moisture and touch detection systems, and transmit
data via a tiny antenna to a nearby base station.

As with other super-long term power generation sources, like
betavoltaic diamond batteries made using nuclear waste, the
amount of power generated here isn't large enough to go and run a
dirt-powered car or smartphone. It's more about powering small
sensors that can run over the long term without needing regular
battery changes.

"If we imagine a future with trillions of these devices, we
cannot build every one of them out of lithium, heavy metals and
toxins that are dangerous to the environment," said Yen. "We need
to find alternatives that can provide low amounts of energy to
power a decentralized network of devices. In a search for
solutions, we looked to soil microbial fuel cells, which use
special microbes to break down soil and use that low amount of
energy to power sensors. As long as there is organic carbon in
the soil for the microbes to break down, the fuel cell can
potentially last forever."

Thus, sensors like these could be very handy to farmers looking
to monitor various soil elements – moisture, nutrients,
contaminants, etc – and apply a tech-driven precision agriculture
approach. Pop a few dozen of these things around your property,
and they should be good to generate data for years, possibly even
decades to come.

Perhaps the neatest part here is that all components of this
design, according to the research team, can be bought off the
shelf at a hardware store. So there's no supply chain or
materials issues standing between this research and widespread
commercialization.

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the ACM
on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies

Source: Northwestern University

https://newatlas.com/energy/dirt-powered-fuel-cell/


Shortwave Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 ...


 

RSID: <<2024-01-19T00:39Z MFSK-64 @ 9265000+1500>>


This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net


 

From the Voice of America:


Turkey's Latest VPN Ban is Another Block to Independent Media

Ezel Sahinkaya
January 16, 2024

Washington —

When Turkey's telecommunications regulator moved to ban some of
the most popular virtual private networks, or VPNs, audiences
lost another way to access independent information.

In total, 16 VPNs are included in the blocking order issued late
last year by the Information and Communication Technologies
Authority or BTK.

The VPNs including TunnelBear, Proton and Psiphon, are often used
by audiences seeking to circumvent bans imposed on Turkish media
outlets over their critical coverage.

"The news portals are trying to diversify the sources through
which they can access their readers," said Gurkan Ozturan, of the
Leipzig-based European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.

Ozturan is a digital media specialist who researched Turkey for
the 2023 Freedom on the Net report by Freedom House, which ranks
Turkey as "not free."

Media sites that find content blocked in Turkey use several
circumvention methods, Ozturan told VOA.

They create mirror sites with servers in different countries,
produce social media-friendly content, and create broadcast
channels in messaging apps.

And audiences learn from a young age how to use VPNs to access
banned content. Even elementary school-aged children have started
using the tools, Ozturan said.

Media outlets sometimes promote VPNs to help audiences find
content.

When the country's media regulator blocked access to content from
VOA Turkish and Germany's Deutsche Welle in Turkey, both
broadcasters promoted Psiphon, Proton, and nthLink as ways for
audiences to reach them.

VOA Turkish also uses a mirror site and DW continued its
broadcasts under a new domain name.

The Turkish communications authority did not respond to VOA's
request for comment.

Sometimes authorities block access to a single article rather
than an entire website.

According to the Free Web Turkey 2022 Internet Censorship report,
access to 3,196 news articles was blocked in the country.

"Access to news in the public interest is arbitrarily banned in
one way or another. Turkey is in the grip of censorship, and
citizens turn to VPNs to overcome this," Aysegul Kasap, managing
editor of news website Diken, told VOA.

Diken has a section on its website dedicated to its blocked news
articles. Titled "VPN News," the page offers audiences access to
content blocked by Turkish authorities, with the earliest news
articles dating back to 2014.

Often the articles report on the president or the ruling Justice
and Development Party or focus on corruption.

"As access blocking and content removal decisions became routine,
we chose this path to make the news accessible and readable
again," Kasap said.

Diken also implements other strategies to inform the public about
any news story facing a ban or removal.

"If the news story is about an issue the public absolutely needs
to know, we report the news again. For a news story that has been
removed, we write another news report as 'Our news with this
headline has been removed from the publication' and rewrite the
main elements of the removed news under that," Kasap said.

"From time to time, we also receive a removal order for these
news reports on removal orders," Kasap added.

VPNs are among the circumvention tools that help bypass internet
censorship.

While it is difficult to ban access to VPNs completely, Simon
Migliano, the head of research at the digital review site
Top10VPN.com, says that it is possible to identify and block VPN
traffic, typically with Deep Packet Inspection technology. He
cited Iran, China, and Russia as examples.

"What we have seen in Turkey so far is that the websites of the
16 VPN providers are being effectively blocked, which makes it
harder to download and sign up for VPN services," Migliano told
VOA.

A spot test of VPNs from inside Turkey found that some are still
accessible, while others did not load.

"While we can see that certain VPN services are still functional
in Turkey if they are already installed, we are also hearing
anecdotal reports of severe throttling of affected VPNs and
blocked traffic," Migliano added.

Hide.me, SecureVPN, and Surfshark confirmed to VOA that their
users experience some technical difficulties in Turkey. Proton
told VOA that the blocks have not been entirely effective.

"Unfortunately, it's not the first time that Turkish authorities
have resorted to internet censorship. Last year, we saw a huge
rise in Turkish VPN use in February following blocks to Twitter,
and in May around the time of the election," Antonio Cesarano,
product manager at Proton, told VOA.

"Now, it looks as if the government is going further by targeting
VPNs themselves," Cesarano added.

Ozturan says it is very common to use VPNs in times of crisis
because "the Turkish government's first response to any kind of
crisis is to restrict internet connectivity and to block people's
access to news sources."

In an email to VOA, Gabriele Racaityte-Krasauske, Surfshark's
head of communications, recalled how social media platforms were
blocked for several hours after the earthquake in February of
last year in which more than 50,000 people died.

"Twitter was blocked on several networks within Turkey,
eliminating a vital communication channel for coordinating relief
efforts after the devastating earthquake," she said.

In declaring a state of emergency, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
warned that action would be taken against those seeking to sow
disinformation.

"We follow those who intend to set our people against each other
with fake news and distortions. This is not the day of debate,"
Erdogan said during his first speech after the quake.

But analysts like Ozturan said that times of crisis, like the
earthquake, are when digital access "becomes a matter of life and
death."

This article originated in VOA's Turkish service.

https://www.voanews.com/a/7442168.html

 

This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK64

Please send your reception report to radiogram@verizon.net

 

This week's images ...
 

Indian Air force Surya Kiran aerobatics team rehearses for an air
show in Mumbai, India. http://tinyurl.com/yrlgj6xo ...

Sending Pic:184x162C;







Fireworks in Copenhagen to mark the accession of King Frederik X
after the abdication of his mother Queen Margrethe II.
http://tinyurl.com/yu54u2ll ...

Sending Pic:147x203C;







"It's a ripper flowering-season for Corymbia ficifolia (WA
red-flowering gum)" at Currency Creek Arboretum in South
Australia, January 17. http://tinyurl.com/yu279ux3 ...

Sending Pic:154x204C;



 

A close-up photo of an ice pellet that fell on the already
melting snow. http://tinyurl.com/yp8oza8k ...

Sending Pic:206x138C;






A family walking along Gott Bay in Tiree, Scotland.
http://tinyurl.com/2xxh4nco ...

Sending Pic:231x89C;

A misty scene on the Greig Street Bridge in Inverness, Scotland.
http://tinyurl.com/2xxh4nco ...

Sending Pic:148x206C;







Maggie the Black Bear celebrates her 19th birthday this weekend
at Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park in Carlsbad, New
Mexico. http://tinyurl.com/yo6e9tla ...

Sending Pic:302x303;







Our painting of the week is "Homestead Winter Evening" (2016) by
Allan O'Marra (Canadian, b.1947). http://tinyurl.com/yonxkl7z ...

Sending Pic:209x140C;










Shortwave Radiogram returns to MFSK32 ...


 

RSID: <<2024-01-19T00:57Z MFSK-32 @ 9265000+1500>>


This is Shortwave Radiogram in MFSK32 ...


Shortwave Radiogram is transmitted by:

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and

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And visit http://swradiogram.net

Twitter: @SWRadiogram or twitter.com/swradiogram

I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next Shortwave
Radiogram.


 

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